# Rope & SumTree

DevFeed: [Rope & SumTree](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/rope-sumtree-13576.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://zed.dev/blog/zed-decoded-rope-sumtree>)

Author: Thorsten Ball, Nathan Sobo, Antonio Scandurra, Max Brunsfeld

Published: 2024-04-23T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Zed Industries - Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/zed-industries-blog.md>)

Topics: [Data structures](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data-structures.md>), [Code](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/code.md>), [Programming](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/programming.md>)

Tags: [code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code.md>), [data-structure](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data-structure.md>), [data-structures](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data-structures.md>), [implementation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/implementation.md>), [memory](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/memory.md>)

## AI overview

This Zed Decoded article examines how Zed represents and edits text in memory using its Rope and SumTree data structures. It explains why strings can be inefficient for editing large files and discusses how Zed's implementation works.

## Source excerpt

In this episode of Zed Decoded, Thorsten asks the founders -- Nathan, Max, Antonio -- about the data structures at the heart of Zed: Rope and SumTree.